So impressed with my food yesterday; I returned today for a second helping!!!
Today I opted for the boneless middle eastern chicken thigh, served in a container without the pitta.
The container is an extra quid compared to the pitta option; but You get more salad, humus and meat.
Delicious, look at the chilli sauce! Bring that shit on!
I’m on a course today up in town; just so happened to find ‘Badolina’ off of Bishopsgate (where it meets Middlesex Street) during my lunchbreak.
Badolina is a Middle Eastern take away shop; or, as they call them south of the River Thames, a fancy kebab shop.
That’s not to take anything away from Badolina; the good quality meat (minced lamb ‘patties’) was charcoal grilled to perfection and stuffed into a very large round pitta bread (white or brown available) with some really delicious salad.
£5.95 was a fair price too? Considering you need to get a mortgage up here just to buy a cup of coffee!
The Spin Doctors were excellent at Fairfield Halls on Friday night; but they went to a completely different level at the Garage in Highbury on Saturday.
Poor old Dodgy provided the support act (Dodgy of ‘Good Enough’ fame) and they were…..erm…..dodgy; for whatever reason, they struggled with technical difficulties and were heckled by a couple of drunk idiots behind me. It was an awful shame because I still remember buying their album ‘Free Peace Sweet’ back in the day. They’ll be back (I hope so).
The Spin Doctors came on early, about 8pm and absolutely smashed the life out of the very same tracks that I heard them perform just 24 hours previously; however, this time, each had subtle extended sections and ad-libbing. Absolutely awesome.
It was very cool, hearing so many people sing along to hits like ‘Cleopatra’s Cat’, ‘Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong’ and ‘Two Princes’; but I was absolutely over the moon that they played ‘About A Train’ and ‘Refrigerator Car’ after placing a request with the band the previous night in Croydon. Both tracks were exceptionally good renditions of their album counterparts and I really hope that they end up as bootlegs somewhere?!
Speaking of which. Here’s my badly miked up attempt at recording ‘What Time Is It?’.
The band clearly loved the more intense crowd at the Garage; that’s not to say they didn’t enjoy the atmosphere at Croydon, it was merely that the Garage was absolutely buzzing? In fact, it reminded me of being back in the States? Dirty old blues bar, Jack Daniels, rednecks. Almost……
Mark White destroyed his bass parts, Eric Schenkman showed why he STILL at the top of his game, Aaron Comess seemed possessed by John Bonham on the skins; what can I say about Chris Barron that hasn’t been said already? Awesome.
10 out of 10. Go see them.
I did a very surreal thing on Friday; I met the ORIGINAL Spin Doctors after their Croydon gig at the Fairfield Halls! Blimey?!?
The Spin Doctors came on after the very energetic and entertaining ‘Brothers of the Mothershovel’ support act; the brothers are a decent bunch of local lads who just about stomped the stage to pieces whilst going about their set.
The brothers in funky hats impressed me so much with their mixture of folk and ragtime swing, I bought their album (Nicely produced it is too!). Hopefully it’ll pay for new strings after the guitarist broke a few during his vigorous strumming!
I last saw the Spin Doctors at the Islington O2 academy on the 30th of January 2013; the main thing I love about seeing the band live is that you never experience the same gig twice! They are an exceptional jam band who love to improvise and it’s a privilege seeing them ply their trade at such small and intimate gigs.
They covered ‘Revolution’ by the Beatles this time which was very cool, before belting out the vast majority of their most excellent back catalogue along AND some tracks from their recent album ‘If The River Was Whiskey’. Oh yes, and the Goodies inspired ‘Everybody Loves String’ improv piece! Genius.
Waiting for my turn to meet the band afterwards, I was extremely nervous. What do you say to Gods? Do they like small talk?
I eventually stumped up the courage to walk over to Eric Schenkman and ask why they didn’t play the excellent ‘About a Train’ from their new album? The track absolutely grooves with lazy blues attitude and I was disappointed not to hear it “Yeah, we’ll do it tomorrow!” came his reply.
What?!? Are you for real?!? I thought it was just lip service, you know, banter?
So I cheekily asked if they’d play ‘Refrigerator Car’ as well (also absent from the Croydon gig) as it’s one of my favourites. “Yeah we’ll play that too!” said Eric. What a genuinely lovely fella he was though, chatting to anyone who popped over, trusting fans to hold his customised telecaster?!? A class act.
It’s one thing for a DJ to take requests, but a world class band? I think I was probably beaming so much, I’m surprised the smile didn’t cut my head in half.
I eventually made it to talk to lead singer Chris Barron after briefly ‘chatting’ to Mark White (bass supremo) about his love of BBC comedy ‘Are You Being Served’ which was very surreal; Chris and I chatted about the new album while he enjoyed a pint before reiterating that they would play the tracks I mentioned to Eric before we all went our separate ways around midnight. Huzzah!
It was an utterly, utterly, utterly bizzare experience that I’ll never forget; thankfully for my nerves, the band are extremely down to Earth and they genuinely seemed to enjoy chatting to everyone who stayed behind.
Good thing I had bought tickets for the following night at the Garage in Highbury and Islington eh?!
Just home from the cinema having seen ‘The Lego Movie’; I can honestly say I’ve not seen such a crazy and enjoyable film for ages!?
The animation is fantastic, as is the vast array of voice talent on offer throughout the film; Liam Neeson as ‘Bad Cop’ was hilarious.
It’s a non-stop ride from start to finish and the film genuinely took me back to my childhood once I clapped eyes on the retro Spaceman and the original knights.
I don’t normally watch ‘the making of’ documentaries that comes with a dvd release, but I think I’ll make an exception when this film comes out on blu-ray. How the hell did they come up with it?
There must be some very, very talented people behind this film, most of whom were probably dropping acid from start to finish??
Go and see it!
I am rather chuffed!
After much consideration, I decided to pour a mulligatawny soup (found in Waitrose, by Duchy Originals) over some Veetee basmati microwave rice!
EUREKA!!! Healthy lunchtime curry, ready in 3 minutes should you have a microwave. Pukka.
I had the soup a couple of weeks ago and pondered at the time that the soup was of a nice thick consistency. It’s almost like daal and rice?
Very, very, very nice! Could do with some chillies though 😉
Proof, that you can’t keep a good homeless man down!
Bravo Sir! Bravo!
Sid, homeless man opposite my office, was evicted from his studio apartment today!
Poor Sid had popped out for a stroll around Croydon when the lorry turned up and two men tore down his house with an industrial claw!!
Wankers?
I’m really quite angry at the callous way in which this has been done; the guy is very friendly to talk to and is standing down there now, distraught at not having somewhere to live!!
The yard is still unused, a development site for an office block that never saw the light of day due to the economy crash; I sincerely doubt anything will happen, so why do something so inhumane?
We will miss you Sid!
I’ve been hearing a lot of people around Croydon running down the the television programme ‘Benefits Street’ which aired on Channel 4 this week.
I watched the first episode last night and thought that they were all really likeable characters who were trying to survive in a place without a great deal of opportunity? Not sure where the high and mighty are coming from calling them the scum of the planet??
I’ve got a massive love for the people of the West Midlands and how down to Earth people are there; certainly there are some rough places (got friends who would probably make it onto the show!) but benefits Street looks an awful lot like parts of Croydon, Thornton Heath, Peckham, Streatham…..
Just on my lunchtime walk today, I saw one suit barge into the entrance of Sainsburys without any consideration to the old lady who was exciting at the same time with several bags of shopping. What a gentleman.
People scattered around my office are usually too focused on their own tasks or too afraid to stop and talk to talk to each other? People up in Brum will talk to you at bus stops, funeral parlours and even in the Gents loos!
So I have to ask myself? Where is the problem in society? Certainly, people manipulating benefits is not great, but what do you expect them to do if there is almost zero potential for work in the area that they live?
I’ll leave you with a picture I took today which made me smile. It’s of three people walking down the road, two chaps with a can of lager and a woman wearing a Christmas onesie in broad daylight.
What do you make of it?
Is it just me, or was the Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland generally reluctant to say goodbye to 2013 due to the scaremongering in the news?
For example: there’s the media frenzy about the Romanian vampire migrants who are supposedly coming to eat everyone’s children? Hmm mm, True blood is coming home to roost!!?
Maybe it’s because there’s a possibility that Scotland may vote for independence later this year ; presumably because a ton of 16 year old Scots end up misdialing an ‘X Factor’ vote premium rate number instead?
Imagine that? Britain is finally undone by Scotland!!! Not by mighty Woad Raiders, not by career dole scrounging Neds (Scottish Chavs), but a wrong bloody number?
Whatever happens with the referendum, I probably won’t give a shite; but it’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out!?
Anyway, here’s to 2014!, hope all you fuckers out there have a good one!
Senor beard.
The Antikrish 
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